Revue de presse du 21 novembre 2017

Despite numerous calls from political opponents and economists, coupled with recent downgrades by international rating agencies, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart remains defiant. He says that the rating agencies can only downgrade the credit worthiness of the country and its ability to borrow, but not the country itself. Besides, he also insisted that such ratings do not affect the country’s ability to produce excellence.

The private sector was severely affected by Hurricane Maria and according to Minister of Commerce, Roselyn Paul, the sector needs $514 million to fully recover. Ninety-seven percent of that amount will be applied to reconstruction with resilience whereas the remainder will be for human recovery needs. She noted that there was a great loss of income, employment and business and the Government has already put mechanisms in place to assist, such as the waiver of the Value Added Tax on building materials, among others.

The Barbados Central Bank and other recognised economists have all raised concerns about the future stability of the Barbados dollar, in light of the dwindling foreign reserves. IMF Director of the Western Hemisphere, Alejandro Werner, is refusing to rule out such possibility and notes that devaluation would have to be a choice of the Government. The Barbados dollars currently stands at 2 to the US dollar.

The Kingdom of Morocco continues its cooperation with Saint Lucia with the arrival of a breast cancer specialist, Dr Raja Aghzadi, in the country. Dr Aghzadi is one of the leading medicine professionals in Morocco and is regarded worldwide in that speciality. She will be working with patients in Saint Lucia. The Kingdom of Morocco also assists Saint Lucia in other areas of cooperation such as agriculture, education and tourism.

Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Allen Chastanet, who attended COP23 in Germany earlier this month says that the Small Islands Developing States (SIDS), consisting of 51 countries, have joined forces. He laments that they are moving collectively to get a motion passed to allow SIDS to have a special fund from both private funds and the developed countries. He wants the message to be clear in that all policies initiated must positively impact SIDS.

During the conference to raise funds for CARICOM countries hit by the recent storms, Prime Minister Gaston Browne made an appeal to the Paris Club countries to provide some debt relief to his country. He notes that his country has loans totalling US140 million with the Club and these have been outstanding for about three decades. The Caribbean Leader is hoping that the Club will provide some form of relief in the form of a write off, or even the interest owed, especially as the nation looks to recover from the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma in September.